Fulham head coach Marco Silva was left disappointed after his side threw away a lead to lose 2-1 against Everton at Craven Cottage
Fulham head coach Marco Silva believes Jake O’Brien was interfering with his goalkeeper Bernd Leno for Everton’s winner at Craven Cottage but believes the hosts only have themselves to blame for their 2-1 defeat. A Vitalii Mykolenko own goal put the west London side ahead on 18 minutes and the Cottagers had numerous chances to extend their lead in the first half before their collapse after the break.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall equalised for the Blues on 75 minutes and then eight minutes later, his corner-kick was punched into the net by Leno, who made a hash of 6ft 6in defender O’Brien standing in front of him.
Asked about the pivotal moment that secured Everton’s 11th away win since David Moyes returned and a Premier League comeback victory – a feat Silva failed to achieve during his 18 months as Blues boss – the Portuguese coach said: “He was interfering, but to be honest, I am so disappointed and we should be disappointed with ourselves much more than to talk about the referee.
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“Our season, in terms of these decisions, I don’t need to make any comments on it, it’s always the same story.
“I don’t go to find excuses. We cannot expect different decisions to go in our favour, we need to look at ourselves and to be more brave, more aggressive in all the moments that we concede the goals.”
The result ensured Everton have now done the double over Silva’s Fulham side this season and the 48-year-old was left to lament their failure to wrap things up before the interval.
He said: “It was a very good first half from us. I think we should have scored four more goals and killed the game and decided it in the first half.
“We had a number of clear, clear chances to score more goals but you have to be clinical at the level we are playing. In the second half, we stopped doing the right things.
“We expected a normal reaction from a side like Everton, we expected them to take some steps forward, but we stopped doing things that we did so well in the first half.
“We started to lose control of the game and of course tried to react from the bench, but we lost control of the game and have to blame ourselves, definitely, for the way we lost.
“When the second half doesn’t go your way, you have to play the other part of the game which is to be strong, defending your box in moments and be stronger in duels and you have to suffer.
“At the level you are playing, the goals we conceded, we were too soft defending our box.
“We need to look at ourselves because if you want to prove your quality, you need to do it for 95 minutes, not just for 45.”